Eternity
by Alana Hikari-Chan
Summary: Owari nai. Because there's never an end, just a cycle of life and death. Oneshot, SephAerVincecentric, odd... R&R?


A/N: I just started writing this for no apparent reason, and I liked the idea... So. Read and review? ^_^  
  
Warning: Chibi-ness, in a way. Somewhat- no, very- odd. Has some... interesting interactions. Some semi-OC stuff, but not really OC, just not CC... Yeah ^^;; One-shot, but pretty long.  
  
Disclaimer: I have never owned, or claimed to own, Final Fantasy or associated characters/places/events. However, I do own this idea, and the chibi-like-reincarnation kids. ^_^ MINE~! *Tackle-glomps Eien*  
  
\%\%\%\%\%\%\%\%\%\%\%\%\%\%\%\%\%\%  
  
...Eternity  
  
\%\%\%\%\%\%  
  
A set of luminous green eyes stare up at Cloud.  
  
Cloud doesn't know where the eyes came from- Nor the small, childish face they are set in, or the head of unruly shimmering grey hair falling into the eyes, or the young boy's body all this is set atop of. No, Cloud has no idea where this small, perhaps five-year-old boy came from- Just that luminous, pale green eyes stare into Cloud's with an impossible intensity.  
  
"Mama told me to come to you."  
  
Cloud almost jerks back at the voice, octaves higher, breathier, unmistakably a child's voice, but so much like Sephiroth's...  
  
"Mama... Mama said you'd give me a chance."  
  
This child... so much... like...  
  
"Will you give me a chance?"  
  
Cloud slams the door shut, everything in his tiny apartment quivering.  
  
The Sephiroth-child bows his head, green eyes impassive as he turns to walk away.   
  
\%\%\%\%\%\%  
  
Cid chews on the end of a cigarette, eyeing the phone with all the joy of a man contemplating a python about to tighten around his neck.  
  
But then, who was he to give up Outer Space- just one last look at that endless, eternal void, and know that it really didn't matter what he did- The grand scheme would stay fixed, no matter how royally he messed up. Just one more look, all he needed was a little help from Reeve...  
  
Hopefully, Reeve would pay a few million Gil, for Cid to go out that one last time...  
  
A knock, soft as it may be, rips Cid's nervous mind to the front door.  
  
'Thank the Fates...'  
  
Behind the door, waiting patiently, is a small boy with glowing pale green eyes and shining grey hair.  
  
The door opens, just a moment passing before Cid glances down, to meet the familiar eyes...  
  
"Cid?"  
  
A string of curses blister the air, another slamming door shaking a house.  
  
Once again, the child turns away, eyes casting their gaze to the ground, but otherwise as emotionless as blocks of ice.  
  
\%\%\%\%\%\%  
  
The footsteps patter softly up a flagstone path, the music of a piano playfully dancing around the boy's eyes.  
  
'Mama? Should I do the same thing as before?'  
  
YES. WHEN ONE DOES NOT SHUNT YOU OUT, THEN YOU SHALL BE FREE.  
  
The Sephiroth-child sighs, walking the last few strides to the door, and reaches up to knock lightly upon it.  
  
The music doesn't stop.  
  
He reaches higher, onto his tiptoes, to push the doorbell.  
  
The piano pauses, then starts a new song- sad and beautiful, but with the odd notes like a roses' thorns...  
  
His head bows once again, accepting the woman's wish to be alone, and he turns away.  
  
\%\%\%\%\%\%  
  
As each person who knew Cloud received a mysterious visitor, a child with Sephiroth's voice, eyes, hair, movements... The friends reforged communications that had fallen dormant over the last year, contacting the network of teammates when the child appeared before their door.   
  
Until no one hadn't seen that strange child- the one that made you shy away, in fear and hate, in guilt and sudden shock... No one, but the one no one knew of.  
  
Vincent Valentine hid, or perhaps slept, where none could find him. He preferred his solitude, his redemption of silence, the dark corners where no one would dare peek, just in case a monster leapt out at them...  
  
Or, perhaps, Vincent was worse than any monster.  
  
\%\%\%\%\%\%  
  
WELL DONE. EVEN I HAD SOME DIFFICULTY IN FINDING HIM.  
  
'But he's part of my mother, Mama. It makes him easier.'  
  
STILL, WELL DONE.  
  
'He is the one who will...?'  
  
NO ONE ELSE HAS. IT MUST BE HIM.  
  
The boy tentatively pushes the heavy wooden lid aside, and as it moves, it scrapes, then thuds dully onto the cold, damp dirt.  
  
Bloody red eyes snap open, black hair sweeping in arcs as the figure almost blurs into a defensive stance, hand to gun, metal-cased arm raised before his face.  
  
"Vincent?"  
  
The breath catches in the man's throat, his eyes scanning over the boy's tousled body... even so young, the strong cheeks and chin show through, the wideness of the eyes not quite covering the angular slant, the darkness not quite concealing the pale, shimmering grey of flaxen hair.  
  
The child... Without a doubt...  
  
"Sephiroth."  
  
"Once. Now, I'm Eien. Mama gave me another chance... Another chance, another name, another life. But no one has even stood long enough to see that the madness has left me."  
  
"Your mama- Do you mean Jenova?"  
  
The child- Eien- shakes his head. "Did I not say the madness has left me? Jenova- Jenova was never a mother, not to anyone of this planet. And. And I am, now... Now, I am of this planet."  
  
Vincent drops his defensive position, arms hidden beneath his cape. "What do you mean, of the planet?"  
  
"Just what I said. Mama made a new body for me, and fixed my mind up, and sent me off to redeem myself, somehow. So it is her energy that re-birthed me." Eien looks up, opal-like green eyes boring into the deep crimson of Vincent's.  
  
"But I have to wait, before setting out. If I can find someone that knows all I did- every gruesome detail of every person I killed, every bloody drop spilled on the ground, every word spoken to drive Cloud to the edge- If I found someone who knew of it before, and knew more after, but still did not shun me- then, I would be free."  
  
Impassive eyes stare into each other, and suddenly, Vincent leans over, flips the lid back onto the coffin, and sinks gracefully onto the wood.  
  
"Well, then, we'd better sit down."  
  
\%\%\%\%\%\%  
  
A year later, Cloud hears a knock on his door.  
  
When the door opens, he sees two far-too-familiar figures standing there, one tall with obsidian waves of hair, one short with hair of woven platinum.  
  
"Cloud."  
  
The deep, quiet voice and deep, quiet nod are so familiar, even after two years apart-  
  
"Vincent? What are you doing here?"  
  
Vincent shrugs. "The building I was sleeping in was demolished. I don't care much, but Eien must have some sort of shelter. So we're staying here."  
  
"Eien?..." Cloud looks down at the Sephiroth-child, unconsciously flinching.  
  
"Hello, Cloud. Long time, no?"  
  
"####- it IS you."  
  
"You know, I believe you're right." The child smiles impassively. "Although I hadn't been me for the longest time." With that cryptic sentence, Eien walks into the apartment.  
  
Vincent follows, a vaguely amused sparkle in his deep red eyes, only to be stopped by Cloud.  
  
"Vince- what's going on? I haven't seen you for two years, and then you show up with- with a Sephiroth-clone, and expect me to let you crash in my apartment?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
Cloud blinks a few times. "Wha?..."  
  
Vincent smirks ever-so-slightly, brushing past the confused blond.  
  
\%\%\%\%\%\%  
  
A week.  
  
A week of two of the calmest, quietest, most nerve-wreaking roommates a man has ever shared, and Cloud was ready to run out the door screaming.  
  
Vincent sleeps all day, walks all night, occasionally talking quietly with Eien, more often popping in and out of the apartment at odd hours, making it impossible to sleep.  
  
Eien tends to sleep whenever he wants, mostly reading books, or watching Cloud with wide, amused eyes.  
  
Eyes that creep around in the back of Cloud's mind, even at the mind-bending day job as a P.E. teacher.  
  
:: Gah... Preteens... Evil... ::  
  
But, hey, pays the bills, right?  
  
Doesn't keep our favorite Chocobo-headed hero from wanting to commit mass homicide. But we digress.  
  
\%\%\%\%\%\%  
  
Cloud had never been so happy to see Tifa in all of his twenty-two years.  
  
There she was, standing on the plain welcome mat, and he could almost see the snowy wings and holy glow floating about her.  
  
"Tifa."  
  
She smiles brightly at Cloud. "Hey! I haven't seen you for two months."  
  
"Tifa, you are an ANGEL. A seraph descended from the heavens, to bless poor, unworthy humans, and especially mako-enhanced ones, and make all their troubles go away." He grabbed her wrist, pulling her into his apartment.  
  
Tifa, understandably, is somewhat confused for a moment. Until Cloud points at a sleeping figure on his couch, tall and lanky, with waves of black hair cascading everywhere.  
  
Vincent Valentine.  
  
And sitting kitty-corner from the sleeping man, a child- perhaps six years old? - with shimmering hair like spun mercury, and large, delicately slanted green eyes, glowing as if they were leaves backlit by the sun...  
  
Her eyes fix on the boy.  
  
Cloud shakes his head. "Don't worry about Eien. He came with Vincent. Just help me get rid of them. Please. I can't stand sharing my room with the two creepiest people on the Planet." Those sapphire eyes of his turn to hers.  
  
Eien smiles the impassive smile.  
  
"Don't worry about it, Cloud. We need to leave anyway."  
  
\%\%\%\%\%\%  
  
Three years later, a small slip of a girl knocks on a flimsy plywood door. A nine-year-old boy opens it after a moment, his eyes that glow the color of new leaves meeting her vibrant emerald-colored ones.  
  
"Ah. Welcome. I was wondering when mama would bring you back. What's your new name?"  
  
"I'm Yumemiru, now." She smiles shyly at him. "Will Vincent take me in?"  
  
"Oh, yes. He's remarkably calm about this sort of thing."  
  
"That's good." Her soft voice becomes quiet. "I... I don't blame you..."  
  
"I'm glad. It's still going to be strange, living with the one I killed, but it's better if you don't hate me." He smiles, a bit of warmth creeping into his eyes. "Come on in. I don't want you to catch a cold."  
  
"Alright..."  
  
\%\%\%\%\%\%  
  
Another three years pass.  
  
"Well, time for me to leave, my friends. Yumemiru, feel free to join me when Mama says you can travel." He smiles at Vincent. "Thank you for understanding, that first time..."  
  
A smile hovers in the man's deep crimson eyes. "If you don't come back to visit, I'll track you down and help you join Lucrezia."  
  
Eien rolls his eyes. "As if you could."  
  
Yumemiru giggles. "Oh, Eien, if you see Cloud or Tifa or Reeve, tell them I said hi."   
  
Eien nods, then walks out of the house, his twelve-year-old body laden with supplies. Yumemiru wiggles her fingers at him in farewell, and Vincent smiles ever-so-slightly.  
  
They watch him walk away.  
  
"... I'll miss him."  
  
Yumemiru glances up at Vincent. "When we met, you'd never say that."  
  
"When we met, all I did was hate him, and Hojo, and myself."  
  
"True..." She giggles a little. "I remember when we met you. You scared us, popping out of that coffin like a vampire, and looking like one, too."  
  
His lips twist into a wry smile. "Do I still look like a vampire?"  
  
"Hmm..." Yumemiru squints critically up at him. "Well... Maybe a really, REALLY happy, girly one."  
  
A dark eyebrow slowly rises. "... Girly?"  
  
Yumemiru giggles and winks, then dashes inside, looking back over her shoulder. "Wanna help with dinner?"  
  
"..." Vincent shakes his head in wonderment at the fact he hadn't yet died from cheerfulness, and follows the green-eyed girl into the run-down house. "What are we having?"  
  
"Croddled greeps!" is the enthusiastic answer.  
  
A long silence stretches like a balloon, and then pops as Yumemiru begins to giggle insanely.  
  
"... You're crazy, you know."  
  
"I'm not crazy! I'm high on LIFE~!" She runs back into the hall and tackle-hugs his arm, dragging him into the kitchen. "C'mo~n, the greeps won't croddle themselves!"  
  
\%\%\%\%\%\%  
  
TIME.  
  
Yumemiru blinks, one hand rising to her mouth.  
  
"Oh..."  
  
She walks over to a sleeping Vincent, shaking his arm until he blinks blearily at her. "Hey, do you think, if I packed really quickly, I could catch up with Eien?"  
  
"... You have to... already?"  
  
She nods sadly. "It's been seven years. I knew it would come soon, and..."  
  
Vincent sits up, looking down at her. "... I'll miss you, kid. Ten years of living with the best friends of my life... Come back and visit, you hear?" And with the last sentence, he reaches over and hugs her solemnly.  
  
After a startled blink of green eyes, she hugs him back. "'Course I will, Vincent. What sort of friend would I be if I didn't?"  
  
\%\%\%\%\%\%  
  
A day later, a slim twelve-year-old girl walks out of an old, run-down house, waving behind her with a cheerful smile.  
  
Three years later, the man living in the house dies, but no one knows, because no one even knew someone lived in the abandoned pile of bricks.  
  
\%\%\%\%\%\%  
  
A twenty-year-old man with soft, silvery hair and inhumanly bright eyes looks at the door.  
  
The soft, insistent knocking continues.  
  
Eien shrugs, sets aside his book, and goes to open the door.  
  
A five-year-old boy with mussed black hair, simple black clothes, and wise blue eyes looks up at the man.  
  
"... Hey, Eien."  
  
"... Your eyes are blue, now."  
  
"They are?" The child blinks. "... Hmm..."  
  
Eien steps to the side, motioning for the boy to come in.  
  
"So, what's your name now?"  
  
"... Haruasa."  
  
"Welcome, Haruasa. Mama wants you to talk to me, right?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
~ owari nai ~  
  
\%\%\%\%\%\%  
  
Because it's never 'the end'...  
  
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Heh... That was... Odd. ^^;; But I still kinda liked it. Anou... review?  
  
~~~~~  
  
Name Translation...   
  
Eien: Eternity  
  
Yumemiru: Dream of  
  
Haruasa: Spring Morning 


End file.
